1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, a network system including the same and a method of managing part information of the same. More particularly, the present general inventive concept relates to an image forming apparatus, a network system including the same and a method of managing part information of the same capable of normally operating the image forming apparatus even if specific information of an exchangeable part, which is installed in the image forming apparatus, is not identical to specific information of the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to the development of an electronic technology, not only a computer but also an image forming apparatus, such as a printer, a scanner, a copy machine and a multi-functional device, is developed and available at a low price with high performance.
In addition, manufacturers of the image forming apparatus provide various services for the image forming apparatus to promote the purchase of their product. As an example of the services, if a user purchasing the product of the manufacturer requests a user account in a homepage of the manufacturer, the manufacturer provides the user with various services, such as an e-mail service, a news service, a web search service and a web hard service.
Meanwhile, since the image forming apparatus actually prints an image on a sheet of paper, the image forming apparatus requires a cartridge. However, when a predetermined time has lapsed, ink or toner is depleted in the cartridge, so that an image forming work cannot be performed. Therefore, the user must frequently exchange the used cartridge with a new cartridge when using the image forming apparatus.
However, in the above image forming apparatus, if a code of the new cartridge is not identical to that of the used cartridge, an error message is displayed and the image forming work can not be performed. That is, in the above image forming apparatus, if country information of the new cartridge is not identical to that of the used cartridge, an error message, such as “Invalid Toner Cartridge”, is displayed and the image forming work is stopped.